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Sports Agenda for Wednesday (1/9/13)

ST PAUL, MN - JUNE 24: Third overall pick Jonathan Huberdeau by the Florida Panthers poses for a photo portrait during day one of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft at Xcel Energy Center on June 24, 2011 in St Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)

(Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)

Big Story:
The Miami Heat went to Indianapolis and got beaten up, down, and around on the boards and not surprisingly, they lost. Who’s the big name you will be hearing about on the Panthers this year? Plus, the worst injury of the year in the NFL costs the league it’s best player for up to 8 months.

Quote of the Day:
“I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all.” – Alexis de Tocqueville

Miami Heat: (off Wednesday, next – Thursday @ Portland)
We heard a lot about small ball heading into the 2012-13 season and that the Heat would be just fine without a real big man/board crasher on the roster.
Hey, it worked really, really well in the playoffs.
Yeah, only one problem…the only person crashing the boards consistently for the Heat is LeBron James.
Last night against Indiana was a perfect example.
Miami was outrebounded 55-36 and 22-7 on the offensive end of the floor.
Indiana had three players with at least 10 rebounds, while Miami had just one, LeBron.
I don’t know where Chris Bosh is, but at 6’11” tall, you’d think he could get up there and get some boards, but not this year, or at least not at this time.
Look, I’m not one to panic right now.
I know these guys are about as interested in the regular season as I am a root canal without anesthetic.
But, Spoelstra has been tinkering with lineups and still hasn’t been able to put anything together to help the rebounding.
It doesn’t help that outside of the Big 3 last night, the team scored 11 points….11 POINTS?!?!
Udonis Haslem, Joel Anthony, Shane Battier, and Ray Allen all played at least 11:51 last night and combined they scored as many points as I did.
Seriously.
Yikes.
The Heat have reportedly shown interest in Chris Anderson, who has more tattoos and wilder hair than South Beach on a bender.
LeBron is playing too many minutes at the present time, that much is known.
But until someone else steps up, Spoelstra needs at least one player on the court he can depend on.
Oh yeah, note to Spo….playing Ray Allen on defense right now is akin to playing Joel Anthony on offense…and that’s not pretty.
The Heat stay on the road where they are 7-7 Thursday night against the TrailBlazers.

Florida Panthers:
Holy cow I have a hockey update in here.
Well, not so much of an update as something I expect to happen.
When the Panthers break training camp for the regular season, I expect Jonathan Huberdeau to become the team’s next star as early as this season.
He absolutely abused the junior leagues and has nothing left to prove there, so I expect him to make the main roster this year.
Check out these numbers over the last two years….110 games played, 73 goals, 104 assists, 179 points
Dadgum!
He’s only around 19-20 years old, so if he keeps developing, Florida has something really, really special on their hands.
Which they’ll need after losing some talent from last year…but the team with the best talent on the farm is arguably the Panthers.
And Hubie will be at the top of the list this year.

RGIII:
If you’ve read the column over the last two years, you already know that I’m a huge Robert Griffin III fan.
That’s why what I’ve got to write here is so bad: he’s out 6-8 months with complete tears of his ACL and LCL.
He’s the most dynamic player in the NFL and he’s going to be missed by the Redskins.
Of course it also goes back to listening to what the best doctor says.
Dr. James Andrews, the man who’s put as many athletes back together as anyone, wasn’t keen on Griffin playing at the end of the regular season and in the playoff game.
Note to all athletes: If Dr. Andrews says hold back….DON’T FREAKING PLAY.
My hope is that RGIII can get his rehab going as soon as possible and that he could be ready to go somewhere around the end of training camp.

Finally, if you didn’t see this during bowl season…this is without a doubt the hardest hit you will see this side of Frank Gifford nearly getting killed trying to catch a pass coming across the middle and meeting “Concrete” Chuck Bednarik.
This hit comes courtesy of next year’s #1 overall draft pick, Jadeveon Clowney of the South Carolina Gamecocks. He went full-on Beast mode here.